When These Mountains Burn

Starred review from June 1, 2020
Joy (The Line that Held Us) serves up an engrossing drama of violence and vengeance in western North Carolina. In 2016, as the Tellico fire burns thousands of acres, Joy delves into the life of retired forester Raymond Mathis; his 40-year-old opiate-addicted son, Ricky, who has already stolen everything from Ray’s house that could be pawned; Ricky’s fellow addict and thief Denny Rattler, bearing a face “whittled” by drugs to “bone and shadow”; and DEA agent Ronald Holland. After a pill pusher tells Ray he has to pay $10,000 or he’ll kill Ricky, the four men become unlikely allies. The money was meant to be Ray’s nest egg, having received it after a drawn-out battle with the state over eminent domain. Joy’s razor-sharp prose details disturbing, graphic images of brutality that begin when Raymond resolves to protect his son. The threads of the story intertwine after Ricky gets hurt and Ronald connects the dots. As the fire spreads, the characters offer emotional reflections on the loss of their mountain culture, already being “sold off for tourists dollars” at the time of the fire. Joy handles everything with ease, proving himself to be one hell of a writer. Agent: Julia Kenny, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency.

Starred review from June 15, 2020
This slow-burning thriller tracks disparate lives affected by a drug empire in western North Carolina. Early in Joy's latest novel, an aging white man named Raymond Mathis drives into the Qualla Boundary and reflects on the history of the Cherokee. The narration moves inside Raymond's thoughts as he ponders the region: "It was a continuum. The government had never stopped shitting on natives. There was not a single moment in history solid enough to build any sort of trust upon." Raymond is en route to pick up his son, a lifelong addict who has run afoul of a local drug kingpin. It's a familiar scene--straight-and-narrow father bails out his tragically flawed son--but the focus is on the complex and harrowing history the two men share in a region with a complex and harrowing history all its own. Joy's novel encompasses the perspectives of a number of people in this community, with Raymond being one of the book's two central characters. The other is Denny Rattler, a Cherokee man who's fallen into a life of heroin addiction and petty crime after a workplace accident. When Raymond's son relapses and dies, it sets the older man on a path of vengeance. Despite the presence of a few hissable villains, drug kingpins and corrupt cops among them, Joy makes the flaws of Raymond's approach readily apparent--including a scene displaying the unpleasant collateral damage it results in. It's Denny who emerges as the book's most complex character and the one who drives the plot toward its satisfying conclusion. With memorable characters, deft plotting, and an attention to detail, Joy has written a powerful work of crime fiction.

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June 1, 2020
In the brush-fire-covered mountains of North Carolina, a heroin epidemic spreads, hidden in plain sight. With every bad choice, in every downtrodden trailer park and unfortunate happenstance, the addictive temptation to escape grows like the many acres of kudzu. Ray Mathis' estranged relationship with his drug-addled son, Ricky, is unexpectedly revived when Ricky gets into a bind with the local heroin dealer. Denny Rattler, an addict making worse decisions after bad ones, is just hoping to hang on and save what little family he has left. A deeply embedded undercover DEA agent treads dangerously close to an interstate supply chain. Desperation and revenge lead these principals on a collision course the reader can see coming, but will eagerly turn to every chapter to find out what's next. Joy (The Line That Held Us, 2018) portrays his characters with unflinching realism. Creative turns of phrase and clever colloquialisms move the story forward and keep the otherwise disheartening subject matter full of thrilling surprises. As Southern noir-tinged fiction gains a well-deserved audience, Joy is one voice that never disappoints.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)